A reader made a very sharp observation regarding new NFC functionality rumored for iOS 12, the Apple Pay Transit support that appeared in China with iOS 11.3 really is a new thing and we could see more coming with the iOS 11.4 update due any day now at some point.
Apple Pay Suica Express Transit is FeliCa and was first, but the newer public beta Apple Pay Transit for Beijing and Shanghai is PBOC 2.0 ED/EP technology, sort of like EMV offline. There are also lots MIFARE transit cards out there: Oyster, Compass, Opal, Myki in addition to the FeliCa based Hong Kong Smart Octopus.
WWDC18 will likely have the new native transit card focused ‘Apple Pay Transit’ as part of expanded NFC functionality for iOS 12. Hopefully the new iOS 12 NFC functions will make it much easier to support native transit smartcards in Apple Pay Transit and let transit agencies and developers add new features on mobile platforms.
UPDATE 1: the iOS 11.4 Update did not add Apple Pay Transit cards for China
UPDATE 2: More WWDC18 and Core NFC Rumors here
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